From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Feb 24 2003 - 11:33:49 MST
--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
>
> I think Mike may have said:
>
> > To answer your question, the French use breeder reactors to cleanly
> > dispose of their nuclear waste. We tried to build one here in the
> US,
> > but the anti-nukers got it canned because if the nuclear waste
> problem
> > was solved, they'd have to get real jobs.
>
> I think much of this statment may be inaccurate.
>
> My current records (I'll supply the spreadsheet for people who send
> me offlist requests) suggest that the U.S. and Russian inventories
> of Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium are respectively 645, 1050,
> 100 and 160 *TONS*.
>
> There *isn't* a problem of "fuel" resources.
>
> Furthermore, breeder reactors are designed to produce greater amounts
> of fissionable material, *not* to dispose of nuclear waste.
I really have to dispute this, Robert. WHile I'm no nuclear scientist,
my dad did design and build the core of a breeder reactor built in the
1960's at Hanford for weapons materials production. Breeder reactors
can either produce OR eliminate nuclear material depending on how you
tune them.
> Living in the state of Washington, where the Hanford facility
> and the waste on its premisese is a frequent source of news
> I can express with reasonable certainty -- if a breeder reactor
> could dispose of nuclear waste -- we would have one operating
> in this state.
You had one there for a while... I can show you pictures of the core
being assembled if you like, complete with pictures of my dad looking
like Homer Simpson with sideburns, a lab coat, and clipboard looking
on.... ;)
>
> The French have (largely) solved the problem of a standardized
> reactor design, well trained people who can operate those
> reactors and fuel for those reactors.
>
> The French have not solved (to my knowledge) the issues
> of the decommissioning of those reactors or the safe
> long term storage of the radioactive materials that
> result from the operation of nuclear reactors. This issue
> is what has produced the intense Yucca Mountain debate
> in the U.S.
Yet where are the French storing their waste? Certainly not the way we
are right now.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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